Are you a recent college grad and wondering if you should join LinkedIn? While you’re wondering, there are many college grads who are making the commitment to engage in a serious online networking campaign. It’s time that you make the commitment.

One of the most respected job search experts in the field, Martin Yate of the Knock em Dead series, discusses one among many good reasons to join LinkedIn–join and participate in LinkedIn groups. Take the time now to read, How recent grads can build useful networking and mentor relationships.

In his article Martin writes about how to utilize the Discussions feature of industry/occupation-specific groups.

“You can make useful contacts at all levels by joining the special interest LinkedIn groups relevant to your profession and becoming a visible part of those groups by contributing to the conversations and adding the contacts you make this way to your network,” he writes.

He suggest that you 1) read group discussion posts and add comments, 2) post discussions of your own, 3) post questions of your own. This is very sound advice, but take it a step further; join LinkedIn before you graduate and get a head start on your competition.